No it doesn't need to be that extreme. I agree. I don't want to give the impression that this methodology/pedagogy throws people to the wolves in a free for all (sink or swim).

It simply increases the amount of pressure and non-compliance in a controlled environment. You spend time on learning gross motor movements first, not worrying about the finer aspects of tuning, once you have mastered the basics, then you start tuning your game.

In this method you would learn to clinch, for example, before moving on to iriminage, which I think is much more difficult than clinching!